After owning and using various Dell laptops over the years before finally getting a MacBook......I'd save until I could afford another Mac. I think I'd regret getting something else just for the sake of having a computer.

I love the design of the Dell XPS M1330 and it's bigger brother, the XPS M1530. Both of which can be had for a few hundred less than a standard Macbook, depending on configuration. They are very well made machines and can be configured with a huge range of options to suit just about any budget. The only problem would be that you're pretty much stuck with Vista at this point, although I'm sure you could probably downgrade to XP or install Ubuntu.

The VAIOs are nice machines, but you will pay a premium for the Sony name. Also, I've found in my dealings with Sony that replacement parts can be very hard to come by should you ever need to service the machine.

Liquid and computers don't mix. It might seem simple, but we see an incredible amount of people post here about spills. Keep drinks and other liquids away from your expensive electronics!

sell all the crap around your house you dont use anymore. thats what i did, i had a stash of 40 gas masks i had from a yard sale a while back, needless to say i got $500 for them. then i also sold my iphone, yea sad huh? but i got $650 for it. Then i borrowed the rest from my boss, and hes taking $100 a week out of my pay till its payed off. only bad part about that is i can get called in at any time now.

Umm, what about a second-hand Macbook? I can only dream of buying a new Mac computer, so it's always 2-hand for me. The only lemon I ever bought was ... an HP! Stick with Mac, you won't regret it.

that was my first thought wen i read the OP.

what's the imperative - new or mac?
if new, get a cheap HP that you'll "live with" until you either want a mac or a more powerful wintel machine.
if mac, buy a gently used mac and assume that you may need to replace some of the consumables (battery, hard drive).

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I'd either do without long enough to get a second-hand MacBook, or, if I just HAD to have a PC immediately, I'd pick up an Asus EeePC for around $300-$400 and then save towards another Mac.

At this point, I can't imagine not using OS X as my primary OS, but I'd make due with Linux on the EeePC for a few months to get me through the primary tasks. You could later sell the EeePC and pick up a Mac.